Culture Regions

1. Culture Regions • Industrial Regions • Diffusion of the Industrial Revolution • Industrial Ecology • Industrial Cultural Integration • Industrial Landscapes

2. Renewable resource crises • Primary industries can be particularly destructive • Gouge huge open-pit mines • Endanger renewable resources such as forest and fisheries • Deforestation is an ongoing process that began at least 3000 years ago • In the last half-century, a third of the world’s forest cover has been lost • Lumber use tripled between 1950 and 1998

3. Renewable resource crises • Loss of the tropical rain forest • Occurring in both Eastern and Western Hemispheres

5. Renewable resource crises • Loss of the tropical rain forest • Most intensive clearing is in the East Indies and Brazil, and commercial lumber interests are largely responsible) • Canadians and Americans can only hypocritically chastise other countries since their own west coast mid-latitude rain forests continue to suffer severe damage because of lumbering • Foreign rather than Brazilian interests now hold logging right to nearly 30 million acres of Amazonian rain forest • Even forests converted to scientifically managed “tree farms” destroys natural ecosystems

7. Renewable resource crises • Overfishing • A problem compounded by pollution • Total fish catch of all countries combined rose from 84 million metric tons in 1984 to 110 million a decade later causing some species to decline • Salmon in Pacific coastal North America • Cod in Maritime Provinces of Canada have reached a biological crisis • Caused a catastrophic recession in the Newfoundland cod industry • Some experts forecast a collapse of the world fisheries in the near future

8. Acid rain • Can be produced by secondary and tertiary industries that pollute air, water, and land with toxic substances and other chemicals • Known to researchers for 150 years • Gained widespread publicity beginning in the early 1980s • How it is created by the burning of fossil fuels by power plants, factories, and automobiles • Acidic sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides are released into the air • These chemicals are flushed from the atmosphere by precipitation • Resultant rainfall has a much higher than normal acidity • A shower that fell on Kane, in northern Pennsylvania in 1978 had a pH reading equivalent to vinegar

10. Acid rain • In today’s world, 84 percent of energy is generated by burning fossil fuels • Acid rain is capable of poisoning fish, damaging plants, and diminishing soil fertility • This problem has been intensively studied in Germany, one of the world’s most completely industrialized nations • In 1982 only 8 percent of forests in western Germany showed damage • By 1990 over half the forests showed damage • Only a crash program of pollution control and energy conservation can now save Germany’s woodlands

12. Acid rain • The Czech Republic faces a comparable problem • In North America the effects of acid rain are accumulating • Over 90 lakes in the Adirondack Mountains of New York were devoid of fish life by 1980 • In eastern Canada, 50,000 lakes face a similar fate • Recent studies suggest acid rain now causes mass killings of marine life along the northeastern coast of the United States and forests in the Appalachians • Oxides of nitrogen seem to be the principal culprit in coastal waters • Impact has been noted in Chesapeake, Delaware, and Narragansett bays • Long Island Sound is also feeling the effects

13. Industrial Pollution: British Columbia, Canada

14. Industrial Pollution: British Columbia, Canada • While emissions from pulp and paper mills are degradable, the foul-smelling sulfur compounds will be broken down only very slowly by plants and microorganisms. Meanwhile they pollute both air and water.

15. Industrial Pollution: British Columbia, Canada • Lumbering contributes to deforestation, and since sulfur oxides contribute to acid rain, this forestry-related manufacturing process also contributes to deforestation. • Mid-latitude coasts are especially vulnerable since acid rain has severe effects on the windward slopes covered with clouds and fogs.

17. Acid rain • Much of the pollution in Canada is caused by American pollution • Canadian government has asked the United States to take action in stopping pollution • United States government has not confronted the problem

18. The Greenhouse effect and ozone depletion • Greenhouse effect is also produced by the burning of fossil fuels • Brings possibility of catastrophic change to Earth’s climate • Every year billions of tons of carbon dioxide (C02) are produced worldwide, 50 times that produced in 1860 • Destruction of rain forests adds huge additional amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere • Chemical composition of the air is being altered

20. The Greenhouse effect and ozone depletion • Greenhouse effect is also produced by the burning of fossil fuels • Carbon dioxide is only one of the absorbing gases involved in the greenhouse effect • Permits solar shortwave heat radiation to reach Earth’s surface • Acts to block or trap long-wave outgoing radiation • Causes a thermal imbalance and global heating • The result at worst, could be a runaway buildup of solar heat that would evaporate all water and make any form of life impossible

21. The Greenhouse effect and ozone depletion • Greenhouse effect is also produced by the burning of fossil fuels • A lesser result could warm the global climate only enough to melt or partially melt the polar icecaps • Cause sea levels to rise as much as hundreds of feet • Inundate the world’s coastlines • Worst-case scenario for the year 2030 seems to include a climatic warming to the level known 4 million years ago • The year 1997 was the warmest year ever recorded • The decade of the 1987 to 1997 also experienced the highest average temperatures in history for a 10-year span

22. The Greenhouse effect and ozone depletion • Greenhouse effect is also produced by the burning of fossil fuels • Onset could be sudden, as some critical, unknown threshold is reached in atmospheric carbon dioxide • Doomsday is possibly being delayed by another industrial-related environmental alteration • Addition of huge amounts of particulate pollutants to the atmosphere • Such pollution acts to block out solar radiation and cool climate • Greenhouse effect and particulate pollution may have acted to neutralize each other

23. The Greenhouse effect and ozone depletion • Some researchers deny we are experiencing global warming • We lack good weather records for all but the recent past • If the climate is becoming warmer, the causes cannot conclusively be determined at this time • Many experts believe the greenhouse effect will be accompanied by major changes in precipitation • Some climatic models predict global warming would make the tropics drier • Also predict the middle and higher latitudes would be wetter • Violent weather may also increase, and evidence suggests this may already be occurring

25. The Greenhouse effect and ozone depletion • Potentially more serious is the depletion of the upper-atmosphere ozone layer • Acts to shield all forms of life from the most harmful types of solar radiation • Freon used in refrigeration and air conditioning is a major culprit • Most industrialized countries contribute large amounts of chemicals contributing to the problem

27. The Greenhouse effect and ozone depletion • Potentially more serious is the depletion of the upper-atmosphere ozone layer • Recent research suggests the problem may be worse than believed • In 1995, ozone levels in the Arctic high latitudes fell by one-third • Ozone hole was first detected over the Antarctic during the 1980s • Greenpeace, and other organizations, warn ozone depletion now threatens the future of all forms of life on Earth • Our modern industrial way of life may prove a maladaptive strategy in terms of cultural ecology

28. Radioactive pollution • Potentially the most serious, though invisible • Catastrophe at Chenobyl in Ukraine on April 26, 1986 • All lands within a 18-mile radius of destroyed reactor were evacuated and remain uninhabited today • Sizable swaths across Europe were bombarded with different kinds of radioactive isotopes • Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years attacks entire human body

30. Radioactive pollution • Sizable swaths across Europe were bombarded with different kinds of radioactive isotopes • Iodine-131 with a half-life of 8.1 days collects in the thyroid gland • Some estimates place amounts of cesium-137 released as equivalent to at least 750 Hiroshima atomic bombs • Ultimately, a sizable part of both Ukraine and Belarus may be declared unfit for human habitation • Tens of thousands of people could die from exposure to radiation caused by this single catastrophe

31. Radioactive pollution • The term “national sacrifice area” is now heard in governmental circles as a potential euphemism for districts rendered permanently uninhabitable by radiation pollution • Mark Corson speaks of “hazardcapes” to describe such places

32. The “Greens” • Pollution crises such as oil spills have led people to political activism • People who have become so distressed by industrially caused environmental problems they have become activists, or Greens • In Europe, “green” political parties now exist in countries such as Germany

34. The “Greens” • Publication of the Green Index is one reflection of increased concern in North America • Organizations such as the Sierra Club and Greenpeace operate as political lobbyists for environmental causes

36. Culture Regions • Industrial Regions • Diffusion of the Industrial Revolution • Industrial Ecology • Industrial Cultural Integration • Industrial Landscapes

37. Labor supply • Labor-intensive industries — those for which labor costs form a large part of total production costs • Include industries depending on skilled workers producing small objects of high value —computers, cameras, and watches • Manufacturers consider several characteristics of labor in deciding where to locate • Availability of workers with necessary skills • Average wages • Worker productivity

38. Labor supply • Labor-intensive industries — those for which labor costs form a large part of total production costs • In recent decades, increasing mobility of labor throughout the Western world has lessened locational influence of labor • Migration of labor increased after 1950, in Europe and U.S. • In Europe, large numbers of workers migrated south to north • Workers left homes in Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Balkan states for employment in European manufacturing belt

39. Labor supply • Labor-intensive industries — those for which labor costs form a large part of total production costs • High-tech and “information industries” often locate near major research universities • Offer a source of skilled innovative laborers • Offer an attractive intellectual setting in which to live

40. Labor supply • Labor-intensive industries — those for which labor costs form a large part of total production costs • Industries dependent on largely unskilled labor tend to relocate to economically depressed rural areas • Labor can be trained quickly and cheaply • Can result in higher profits • Large supply of cheap labor

41. Labor supply • Labor-intensive industries — those for which labor costs form a large part of total production costs • Much industry went to “Norma Rae-Ville” in American South for above reasons • Today, principal relocations go to less-developed countries such as northern Mexico, along its border with the United States

43. Labor supply • A new global division of labor seems to be in the works • Behind these changes lies strategic thinking by directors of global corporations • As early as the mid-1970s, 298 American-based global corporations employed up to 25 percent of their workers outside the United States • Such factories quickly drive up corporate profit margins • Shift of production to faraway lands has a weakening effect on organized labor inside the United States

44. Markets • Type of market being served can affect location of industries • Makers of farm machinery cater to a more dispersed body of consumers, giving them a greater freedom of choice in location • Specialized high-tech manufacturers often have one or two principal customers and tend to locate near this market • Clustering in cities pulls manufacturers to urban centers

45. Markets • Greatest market potential exists where the largest numbers of people live • Once an industry locates in a particular place, it provides additional jobs and attracts laborers to the area • Additional population in turn creates a larger local market • Other industries are then attracted to the area • An agglomeration is then created as the end result

46. Markets • Industrial districts develop through agglomeration • Creates a snowballing effect • Difficult to control in free-enterprise systems • Can produce serious overcrowding and an excessively clustered population • Intense concentration of industries and population is characteristic of most industrialized nations

47. The political element • Governments often intervene directly in decisions concerning industrial location • Desire to establish strategic, militarily important industries that would otherwise not develop • Decrease vulnerability to attack by scattering industry • Place vital strategic industries in remote locations, removed from possible war zones • Diversifying industries to create self-sufficiency

48. The political element • Governments often intervene directly in decisions concerning industrial location • Bring industrial development and higher standard of living to poverty- stricken provinces • Halt agglomeration effect in existing industrial areas • Most Often governments intervene in certain socialist countries, such as China • Some intervention can be found in most every industrial nation

49. The political element • Examples of industry being scattered by governments • Major industrial complex in the Ural Mountains deep inside Russia was in response to German military advance in 1941 • For strategic reasons, the U.S. government during WW II encouraged development of an iron and steel industry in Utah • American aircraft similarly became dispersed by government policy

50. The political element • Local and state governments often directly influence industrial location • Grant tax concessions to persuade industries to locate in their areas • Also can act to prevent industries viewed as undesirable • Brewery — where influential local church leaders hold prohibitionist views • Development of pollution-prone industries